The Shocking True Story of Eduardo Garcia

We all have times in our lives when it just seems like one thing goes wrong after another.  We recently went through a period when our oven stopped working.  We set up an appointment to get that fixed and, before that day arrived, the washing machine shot craps.  I was ready to go buy another washer when I went out to check on my chickens and noticed water bubbling up from around the hydrant I used to water them.  Bad things were happening faster than we could overcome them.  It felt like we were climbing up two steps and sliding back three.

But compared to what Eduardo Garcia went through, our time was a walk in the park.

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Eduardo is an outdoorsman.  He spends as much of his free time as possible in the backcountry, hunting, fishing, and hiking. 

I can relate to that.

In October of 2011, thirty-one-year-old Eduardo was hunting elk with a bow, hiking alone near Gardiner, Montana.  He came upon the remains of a young black bear.  Since he has a friend who runs a youth education program, Eduardo often picks up natural objects to help his friend catch the youngsters’ enthusiasm.  So he investigated the carcass, looking for a way he could get something, perhaps a claw, to take back for the kids.

So Eduardo pulled his belt knife out of its sheath and poked the dead animal.

In his own words, “A symphony of sound, energy and light erupted within my body.

“I will remember it for the rest of my life – 2400 volts coursed through me.  The baby bear had been killed by a buried, live electrical wire.

“My next memory was the sky above me.

“Somehow I got up. I could hear the sound of the gravel beneath my feet as I was walking, thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’  I looked at my left hand and it was charred and black, curled at a 90 degree angle from my elbow against my body.

“I walked down a winding road to the river bottom.  The quickest and easiest way to get help was to cut through the rocks and bushes and head straight down.  I realized that if I tripped, I wouldn’t have the strength to get up a second time.  I would die there.”

Eduardo somehow made three miles to a cabin where the occupant sat him down and called an ambulance.  About an hour later he was in a Livingston, Montana, emergency room being prepped for a MEDVAC plane.

He spent 48 days in the intensive care unit at the University of Utah burn trauma center in Salt Lake City.  During his stay there, they amputated his left hand, removed four ribs, and big chunks of the major muscle groups in his legs and torso.

Just wait, it gets worse.

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Garcia had nine exit wounds where the “lightning bolts” left his body, including one in the groin and inner thigh area.  In one of his few strokes of good luck, when tissue samples came back from the lab, they tested positive for testicular cancer.  That in itself is not lucky but, hey, how bad would that have gotten if the doctors hadn’t found it then…because of the electric shock?

Anyway, he already had plastic surgeons, a burn trauma team, a cardio-thoracic team.  Now he could add a few oncologists all working to try to save his life.  Because of his cancer treatment, however, much of his reconstruction had to be put on hold while he underwent five months of cancer treatments.

In January, he flew home and started a rigorous regimen of chemotherapy, five days a week for three months.

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Eduardo is not one of those, “Oh woe is me,” kind of people.  As he said, “I’m a real ‘glass half full’ guy.”  Oh, he had his bad times but, through it all, he knew that, ultimately, his recovery was up to him.  He knew he could sit in a chair and feel sorry for himself or he could get up, find out what adjustments he had to undergo to make the most of his condition, and move on with the new life he had.

In September 2013 Eduardo was fitted with a state-of-the-art bionic hand, but found it difficult to use in his chosen profession as a chef.  He switched to a bionic hook that worked very well and he felt it actually enhanced his abilities in the kitchen, so he stuck with that. 

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He explained, “Looking back, I can see it was my unshakable, positive attitude that allowed me to be strong and patient, and that, in turn, allowed my support team of surgeons and caregivers to do their jobs. Accepting help from others, being humble and ultimately coming to terms with and owning the ‘new’ me has made me who I am today.”

Garcia put the past behind him.  Since being released from the hospital, he has stayed busy.  He’s continued working as a chef.  He co-founded the food brand Montana Mex and is a motivational speaker for healthy living.  He ran a triathlon and works with groups like the Challenge Athletes Foundation, which helps veterans, amputees, and other physically challenged people, through the use of sports.  He goes to schools to talk to kids who are bullied.  “They see my prosthetic arm —with a hook for a hand — and think, ‘If he can get out there, so can I,’” he said.  He started developing a cooking show, named Active Ingredient. 

Oh, and he earned a new nickname, the Bionic Chef. 

I wonder why.

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Eduardo’s story was released on film.  Charged, The Eduardo Garcia Story was released in 2017.  It is a documentary survival story, starring the real people who lived through it.

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